The present invention relates to the administration of certain lysine containing peptides to a mammal for normalizing cardiac pressure and treating heart disease.
Under the general term heart disease, a variety of cardiac ailments, including myocardial ischemia, heart failure and related vascular dysfunction, are treated with drugs such as organic nitrates, calcium channel blockers, .beta.-adrenergic receptor antagonists, antiplatelet and antithrombotic agents, cardiac glycosides, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin receptor antagonists. A general review of the field is found, for example, in Goodman & Gilman's "The Pharmacologic Basis of Therapeutics", IX edition, McGraw-Hill, New York, (1996), chapters 32 and 34.
Recently, the protective effect of a peptide known as Hexarelin (also called examorelin) having the structure His-D-2-methyl-Trp-Ala-Trp-D-Phe-Lys-NH.sub.2 was described in an article by V. De Gennaro Colonna et al., European J. Pharmacology, 334, (1997), 201-207. Hexarelin was found to reverse the worsening of cardiac dysfunction in growth hormone deficient rats. At least part of its beneficial effect on myocardial ischemia was attributed to the growth hormone liberating properties of the peptide.
Heart disease is an increasing health problem as the population at large ages, such that there is a need for additional drugs or agents for treatment of these conditions. The present invention provides a number of peptides that are useful for this purpose.